[linux-audio-user] Opening up the discussion

[Phil Mendelsohn]

Wolfgang Lonien <wolfgang at lonien.de>

> Hi Christoph,
>
> so this includes *me*? As I explained in an earlier post, I did MIDI
> when we were still using DOS, but audio was (at that time) far without
> reach - with *any* operating system. Audio was still pre-ADAT, so we're
> talking 24-track tape machines...

Just to pick a nit:

Audio predates MIDI by about 30 years.  Being out of reach I'll agree
with, for sure!, but there were tube D/A converters being built in the
late 50's at MIT (meaning the resistor ladder type guts, not any
"audiophile" type of thing).  Tom Stockham and the Soundstream were
pre-MIDI, there were various things going on in Europe, and the Synclavier
was doing sampling and resynthesis (not sampling playback as we know it)
before MIDI.

MIDI was '84, and coincides roughly with the release of the Ensoniq Mirage
-- the first sampler for under $10,000, but there were a lot of expensive
computer systems (standalone or general purpose) that knew something about
audio.

Cheers,
Phil Mendelsohn

-- 
Dept. of Mathematics, 342 Machray Hall
U. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
Office:  446 Machray Hall, 204-474-6470
http://www.rephil.org/   phil at rephil dot org